The reasons your marathon training plan is all wrong

Whether you’re gunning for sub 3-hours or simply hoping to collapse over the line, a plan revolving around endless pavement pounding is going to get you nowhere fast. There’s a lot to be said for plodding through 20 miles in the run up to race day, it’s an invaluable test of your mental fortitude, but when it comes to increasing your speed, and finding every footstep less exhausting, it’s little better than useless. This might sound contentious, but if your marathon training consists of going for mindless long runs, then you’re doing it all wrong.

With the aim of helping you add a little more science to your training schedule, MH went to Harley Street’s Centre for Health and Human Performance. It was there we met with senior physiologist, Jim Pate, who explained the universal lesson every marathon plan must adhere to: speed is the source of PB-worthy endurance. And if you want to shave minutes from your marathon time, you need to practice going faster at shorter distances.

The reason? Well, that comes down to the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

A quick scan of Wikipedia is all it takes to discover that exercising aerobically means the amount of oxygen you inhale metabolises enough energy for your muscles to sustain activity. Run faster, however, and the energy your muscles require outstrips that which inhaled oxygen can provide, forcing your body to breakdown glucose stores. This process produces fast energy, but also lactic acid, which is the reason you can’t sprint a marathon.

But how does this cardio nerdiness effect your race time? As long as you have stocked your muscles with proper nutrition and hydration pre-race (more on this later) then technically you can run aerobically forever, explains Pate. The only problem is your pace is going to be slow. And the only way to improve that pace is to add anaerobic work into your plan – which spells the end for your endless plodding.

The most effective way to capitalise on this information is to find out your anaerobic threshold. It involves hooking up to a set of Bane-style mask and wires before being put through your paces on a treadmill to exhaustion. Through monitoring the content of the breath you exhale, this piece of kit can tell you at which point your body’s quest for fuel becomes anaerobic.

As you can see, for MH’s Ted Lane, he hit his anaerobic threshold at 11.2 km/h. Which means if he turned up at the start line tomorrow he could run that pace from start to finish – if he sucked down enough water and gels, that is.

But that’s not where the information ends. This CHHP reports also outlines two separate training zones. And it is only by working in these training zones that you are able to increase your anaerobic threshold, and therefore increase you marathon pace, Pate says. Anaerobic exercise produces more mitochondria in your muscles and therefore increases your body’s ability to use oxygen for energy, increasing your aerobic threshold and helping you cross the finish line faster.

This information is highly individualised, obviously, and while adding 6km/h puts Ted in his max effort range, the same cannot be said for every runner. But the principle is the same and there are ways to generalize if a Bane-style mask isn’t in reach.

Work out your max heart rate (220 – your age) and your anaerobic threshold will be somewhere around 25bpm lower than that. Now you can use a simple fitness tracker to monitor your effort levels and ensure you’re working at an intensity that’ll improve your long distance speed. Start by upping the pace until your heart rate climbs 10 bpm. Maintain that speed for 2mins before dropping down below your aerobic threshold for 5mins to recover. Repeat this process a few times before gradually increasing the pace, and the number of minutes you maintain that speed for.

Eventually you’ll notice you’re pushing harder to hit the same heart rate target (a surefire sign your aerobic threshold has increased) and then you can apply that new speed to your weekend long runs. You’ll be amazed at how fast you can add extra horsepower to your long distance plod.

But the advice from CHHP doesn’t stop there. Performance nutritionist, James Collins, reveals the most common culinary errors made by budding marathoners and explains how to fix them.

Carb Smart – match your intake to training demands

Its important to note that your carb intake should match your training volume: This means that making sure you are ‘fuelled’ having a high carb meal before your long run. We call this ‘carb-smart’ – not generically high/low carb intakes – but matching your training demands (periodising – like you do with your training).

But on lighter days (e.g. shorter, low intensity runs) your body will need less of the high intensity fuel (carbs), so you can affort to have more of a protein base to your meals (and less carbs).

Your training nutrition timeline for key runs:

2-3 hours before: Load up on carbs (1-2g/kg of your bodyweight) for some slow–release energy and a moderate amount of protein (25-30g). This will give you enough time to fully digest the meal, so you have the energy, minus the risk of any stomach discomfort mid-run.

60-30 minutes before: If you haven’t had chance for a your pre-run meal - Get your hands on an energy-boosting snack before a run, which means a small portion of carbs with a relatively high glycaemic index score, the reason? It’ll be broken down into glucose quickly for fast-acting energy that places minimal strain on your gut.

Within 30-minutes of finishing:Start the recovery process – Grab another small portion of carbs to replenish energy (muscle glycogen), protein for muscle repair and fluids to rehydrate (homemade recovery drinks and smoothies are great options here)

1-2 hours after: Your recovery meal – A carb-based meal with restore your fuel stores in the muscles and liver, while adding a portion (25-30g) of protein will help downsize DOMS so you can crawl out of bed tomorrow without creaking.

So, does that mean an end to your fasted cardio? Not at all, explains Collins. 'Training Low’ for up to 1 hour (any more and you’ll run out of energy, doing more harm than good) is a valuable tool for promoting fast metabolism and reducing body fat. It reduces the availability of carbohydrate, thus increasing the metabolic stress placed on your muscles, which fast-tracks favourable adaptations (think even more energy-producing mitochondria) for endurance.

Race preparation

By starting training sessions well fuelled often mean you don’t need to take on extra carbohydrate during training. But as as the distances increase in the month before the race, taking on carbs during will help to top-up bloods glucose and maintain energy levels. Practice taking on carb-based gels, shots, or sports drinks during your longest training run in preparation for the race itself – 30g/hour is a good starting point, up to a maximum of 60g (equilvent to 2 gels).

Often more isn’t better, as you will need to ‘train your gut’ to absorb carbs during your run. The bottom line is practice during training and don’t try anything new on race day.

Your pre-race nutrition strategy:

You’re now entering into the territory of carb-loading. But beware: there has been a shift in nutritional theory recently that’s worth noting, says Collins.

While it’s still used to describe a period of high carbohydrate intake to maximise the body's glycogen stores in preparation for an endurance event, it’s now believed carbs levels can be maximised over the two days before a race – not the traditional seven. In fact, piling your plate for that long run has now been proven to increase fat stores, slowing you down.

A rough guide to go by is consuming 10g of carbs per kilo of your bodyweight; that means if you weigh 70kg, aim to consume 700g of carbohydrate each day. It may sound like a lot, but organise every plate so it’s half-filled with carbs (save a quarter for protein to help muscle repair) and you’ll find forcing it down more manageable.

Follow this plan and you’ll hit the start line with fully stocked muscles and there’s no need to over eat either the night before or, even worse, the morning of, which will only end one way – you feeling very nauseus.

Last, but by no means least, comes the issue of maintaining your fluid levels over 26 miles. A policy of ‘drink loads of sports drinks’ is nowhere near good enough, we’re afraid. Not only can a fluid loss greater than 2% of your body mass have a negative affect on performance and increase the strain on the body, but over hydration dilutes your blood electrolytes, leading to a condition called hyponatremia that has serious consequences for your health. Best to listen up then.

During training you need to estimate your sweat rates, which isn’t as difficult as it sounds. All you need to do is weigh yourself before and after your run, work out the difference and then subtract any fluid consumed. Every 1 kg lost is roughly equal to 1 litre in sweat. If you lose 1kg over the course of a 2-hour run you need to replace 500ml of fluid every hour.

Finally, to make sure you start your race fully hydrated, drink a pint of water two hours before the race, it’ll top you up while allowing any excess to be passed as urine before the starting pistol. Simple.

And there you have it: your success route to race day planned out by the experts. Don’t purloin your chance of a PB with long plods, or hit the start weighed down by unnecessary carbs. With MH’s guide you’ve now got the info to go all the way. See you at the finish line.

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